Those soft-synth CPU sucking blues...

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Hmm.. Chainer sounds interesting, but looks as if it hasn't been updated since 2002? sfz I'm familiar with and used to use when I used soundfonts, never played with sfZed.. may have to chase that down and fiddle about with it. Might inspire me to cough up for sfz+ even (lol).

[McLilith]

Yes, Chainer development has been stopped, but you can still license it, as far as I know. You can actually download it for free. The only problem with the free download, is a "countdown" screen upon launch. Pay the modest license fee, and it goes away.

In the meantime, you have full access to all the program's features, so you can test it fully. It's not crippled at all, as far as I can recall.


take care,
McLilith

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I'm going to try out Chainer tonight and see how well it works at making soundfonts out of stacks. If it's a workable solution, maybe I won't sell all my licenses! Thanks for the info!

There are just some sounds I want/need that are too involved for my poor computer and I do NOT want to upgrade Yet Bloody Again!

[jsd]

I've started getting into the habit of rendering everything to audio as soon as I'm reasonably happy with it. Audio events are much more flexible for me than MIDI anyway (maybe due to choice of host - I use Cubase SX). I've also found that this allows me to build up really complex arrangements in a more spontaneous way. Like, do I want to use this ginormous Reaktor ensemble for just one little effect sound? Sure, why not? I'm just going to render it immediately anyway. Also I found that by having tons of audio files lying around of little snippets, I can recombine/reuse them in other pieces really easily. Turn them into loops, background textures, whatever. It's a fairly flexible way to work. I think we're all used to using hardware boxes with 16 part multitimbrality and we think that's the way to treat VSTi's. Maybe in the future when we all have quad cpu boxes For now, my motto is "render asap." It works great for me, give it a shot!

[anti-banausic]

Wow, Chainer is pretty darn good. I think that if you got the sound that you want, then either output to wav or sfz, or freeze the track, you could get some really pretty cool sounds. It also seems to optimize performance a little.

Very cool.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Ehm.. T2 does have "bounce to track" capability, guess I should use it someday lol!

I guess I have a "fear of commitment" - I want to keep things as flexible as possible until the very last second! Probably a mistake.. never used to sweat it when I was a guitar player.. ugh.. maybe I should give up keys and go back to shredding on an axe!

Still gonna try Chainer for soundfont creation, could be a sound-designers dream if it works well!

[TrekStar]

I absolutely second that rant subject.

VSTis nowadays are blowzy written....no one spends anymore time on cpu optimization. time is money. and so the the user gets forced to spend that money...buying for each nu software the fitting daw. I hate that.

I could not resist and did by Kontakt 2....but the cpu usage for a sampler is not satisfying.
just only one example to name.

anyhow i doubt that your hardware gear is a solution. for some kind of music definitely....but everything what needs big sample pools like orchestral stuff....forget your motif &co...it won't sound convincing.

[Stupid American Pig]

It could just be that users are demanding better sound and these algorithms just cost more CPU...

Oh well, I hopped on the consumer train and bought a new socket 939 athlon 3700 system. Should give me a wee bit more headroom

[steveholt]

Might inspire me to cough up for sfz+ even (lol).

sfZed will edit and create sfz files which play only in sfz right now - NOT sfz+. Odd I know, but that's the way it is!

[edit] Oh and CakeWalk Dimension - also by Rene, sort of sfz plus plus as far as I can make out - probably why sfz+ missed out [edit]

Steve

[lawapa]

I was playing with Dimension today. It's one great synth but I would hesitate to compare it with the SFZ+. I do have both on my box. I'm not sure how it works as well as it does but it seems to transform sounds, while the sfz plays them and does an admirable job of that. While Dimension does play back you normal wave set with execelent results It almost sounds like a cross between z3ta and sfz. I probably off the mark here. I need to get into the programing sounds on the dimension before I do the call but I'm a happy rgc junkie.

[deggy]

usin a mac g5 2.3 - no problems here. i can just layer like 2 or 3 instances of albino for a synthline a bunch of times, have a reaktor or 2 and bunch of the included stuff and an ultrabeat or 2 before having to freeze. but yeah, i did notice that my hardware does sound a little nicer than the software. it's just harder to record (got to get the a/d converter and pre-amp set up and then get the levels checked etc.) nowadays, it is just easier to work with software and that way i can go back and edit a patch if it sounds crap and i don't have to worry about if i accidentally saved over some old patch in a hardware synth in a track i made a few months ago because it's all saved in the logic session.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Just a coda to all this (lol): by careful use of sfz, "bounce to track", and different effects routing I've managed to get the sound I want, with software, without pushing over 75% CPU!

Thanks for all the suggestions, if I can keep a level head and not go overboard I might sell my Motif ES Rack instead!